babylon
uprising
the brief
logo design • branding • stage design • print design • web design
Babylon Uprising are a collective and sound system from the south-west, running a stage at the world famous Glastonbury festival. I’ve been lucky to work alongside them since their inception, creating logo, branding, promotional material, website and even designing their infamous stage.
Every five years the crew change the ‘theme’ slightly and I am tasked with aligning all visual communications with this. 2019 saw the most recent incantation of this, the brief was ‘Post apocalyptic rave at a military stronghold, with hints towards sound system culture and the UK underground rave scene’. They wanted the brand to be suggestive of a military outpost broadcasting radio transmissions to the rebelion in order to support the ‘uprising’.
This comes from their name and also position in the festival. The stage is situated in the centre of the market area known as ‘Babylon’. Their presence is a clear defiance of the more commercial side of the festival and they wanted to reflect this.
logo process
For the logo update I combined military chevrons to create a broadcast mast. I thought it was important to give the stage a minimalist but easily identifiable icon, similar to those seen on military vehicles and equipment, that could be used across all promotional material.
promotional material
With a brand identity in place I started creating branded promotional material that could be used on the stage and also around the festival to draw attention to the stage. The strategy was a more subliminal approach to create a buzz around the stage and play off it’s ‘hidden gem’ image.
back stage
With so many DJs passing through their stage on a daily basis the crew thought it was important to differentiate between crew and staff so I provided them with Hi-Vis vests for crew and day specific artist lanyards, these also served as keep sakes for DJs.
I also produced a daily schedule that could be displayed both front and back of house in order to make sure DJs and the crowd didn’t miss anything.
stage design
Having been supplied with the dimensions of the major fixtures for this years stage and keeping in mind the brief, I created scale drawings and an initial visual concept for the Babylon Team to review, I specified textures along with ideas for adding small details to the staging to really bringing the military stronghold feel. By adding gas masks and disregarded canisters allowed a more believable feel to the set.
I liased with the build team throughout the process to ensure everything was delivered on time and to specifications.
website
The Babylon Uprising crew wanted a simple website to serve as a portfolio of images from past festivals and also provide basic information about the up coming festival, line ups and useful information etc.
I created a clean and easy to navigate site that could deliver on this brief without breaking any budgets. I keep the site updated each year with all the new branding and promotional material and also help create any social media content required.
testimonial
Visual Pickle has been an absolute legend creating the visual identity for our stage at Glastonbury Festival.
As a collective we had quite a broad pool of ideas and his work made sure that everyone’s dreams were realised! From physical design aspects for our stage design, animated projections, promotional banners and immersive experience, to a high-volume of digital work in logo, video, branding, web-design and graphics.
He is brilliantly communicative with the team and very hard-working. He managed to stick to our specific brief, whilst bringing a creative flair that makes us look so good! We will definitely continue to continue to work with Visual Pickle for anything we need in this area. Thank you.
Mike Elvé
Babylon Uprising Crew
